Masters Of Cinema have acquired the rights to The Birth Of A Nation. It'll be out on disc before the end of the year. I already have the US Kino Blu-ray, but am keen to see what MoC have up their sleeve. A meaty documentary would be nice. Or a contemporary video essay (ala the Tag Gallagher one on The Iron Horse).

Masters Of Cinema have acquired the rights to The Birth Of A Nation. It'll be out on disc before the end of the year. I already have the US Kino Blu-ray, but am keen to see what MoC have up their sleeve. A meaty documentary would be nice. Or a contemporary video essay (ala the Tag Gallagher one on The Iron Horse).

WOW!!! That is some brilliant news!!! I own the British dvd as well as the Kino blu-ray but without a doubt I`m gonna get this since I got a feeling that the MoC release will be better

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Jules: "What" ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?

The Birth Of A Nation A while ago I wrote on another site that I currently own 2 different versions of D.W. Griffith`s controversial film (the UK dvd and the Kino blu-ray) but hadn`t yet seen either of them because you don`t just put on an over 3 hour long film, you have to make some time for that. Yesterday I had the time and so it was time for the blu-ray version. The film is over 3 hours long but never was it dragging or boring. On the contrary: the film was pretty much over before I knew it.

The controversial status that the film has is correct. It is, especially in the second part, really hard and racist. Griffith almost says, through the title cards, that Afro-Americans talk some kind of unintelligible language. And the Ku Klux Klan is, apparently, the only one who can save the South of America (and therefor the whole country) from the domination of the "Blacks" and the people who wanted to end slavery are guilty to "the demise of America". It really gives enough material to think about and discuss...

About Griffith`s qualities as a direction on the other can`t possibly be as much discussion. His trailblazing work on the front of telling stories and editing techniques are very clear and are, especially for that time, impressive.

Then the blu-ray itself. Of course here there are damages in the transfer. Therefor I`m really interested to see what the upcoming Masters Of Cinema will bring us and if they can top the image quality on that edition to this Kino release.

Nonetheless a film that we can say much about but one that you really need to give a chance, one that inspite of its reputation truly deserves its status as an important classic.

9,0/10

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Jules: "What" ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?

Received and watched Lifeboat on saturday and the two French films today:

Lifeboat A 95 minute film that exclusively takes places in the titular Lifeboat. You need to be a mighty fine director if you want to turn that into a thrilling and good film. You can leave that to the Master of Suspense. Even though there really isn`t that much suspense at all but is more a character study than anything else, it is a movie that knows how to keep your attention. Technically this is a very strong film, brought to blu-ray by Masters of Cinema in a superb quality.

8,0/10

And two French-language short films from Hitchcock that are extra`s on that same blu-ray:

Bon Voyage & Aventure Malgache It`s special to see French films from Hitch. Both revolve around the French resistance in the WWII. The first, the shortest, was clearly the better one. That was exciting and thrilling and had a good storyline. The second one was more of a drag and kinda dull, didn`t really do it for me. It`s great to have seen these but both clearly don`t need to be considered as Hitch`s best work.

7,0/106,0/10

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Jules: "What" ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?

EUREKA will be announcing their releases incl. MASTERS OF CINEMA titles for July, August & September on Monday 30 Apr at around 2.30pm UK time via their @eurekavideo & @mastersofcinema twitter feeds and on this very page! So what films and which directors would you like to see join the Masters of Cinema Series?

Looking forward to the releases and to see what they`ll release

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Jules: "What" ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?

Looking forward to the non-Pasolini titles (I'm not a big fan). Surprised to see Eureka are also putting out the Moroder version of Metropolis too (albeit not as part of the MoC series). It's a horrible film. Still, the Mabuse blu-ray is well worth getting excited about, and I'm keen to see what extra material accompanies Cleopatra. Rumble Fish is a real favourite of mine too, and it ought to really look great on Blu-ray. It's also nice to see Coppola in the collection too.

Picked up a few of their steels recently, do some terrific work.....Repo Man, Third Man and Lifeboat all great steels.

Emailed them, hoping I can Two-Lane and Silent Running direct from them rather than a third party(as their packaging was also better) along with my Lost Souls pre-order. Also on that Rumble Fish pre-order, and hoping they can do something with Cotton Club, which would basically complete all that I care about for Coppola(with all his 70's masterpieces on blu already)

Picked up a few of their steels recently, do some terrific work.....Repo Man, Third Man and Lifeboat all great steels.

Don't you mean Touch Of Evil? I'm not a fan of steelbooks myself,but it certainly seems to have opened up their audience somewhat.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Macphist0 Emailed them, hoping I can Two-Lane and Silent Running direct from them rather than a third party(as their packaging was also better) along with my Lost Souls pre-order.

I'm fairly sure that Silent Running steel book has long been out of print,as has the one for Metropolis. I wouldn't let that stop you from buying the normal version of Silent Running tho, as it's a fantastic disc

Received the Wilders` steelbooks on tuesday and watched Double Indemnity today:

Double Indemnity The mother of all films noir looks in this Masters of Cinema blu-ray better than ever before. With this beautiful new transfer (with a gorgeous amount of film grain) the play between light and shadow comes better to its right than ever before. It gets more atmosphere to it. The film itself is still out of this world with a storyline that is told in almost one long flashback in wich Barbara Stanwyck steals the show. An essential purchase, this Masters Of Cinema blu-ray.

9,5/10

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Jules: "What" ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT?

The PQ is a couple of notches below the best Blu-rays of that era - there's distracting flickering in the first and final reels, and a blotchy effect in some shadows that looked like a bad compression artifect.